Sunnyfield rolls out an AI policy assistant to its frontline disability workforce

Picture a disability support worker at the end of an evening shift in a shared living home. Something unusual has happened. It is nothing dramatic, but it is enough that she is not certain of the right procedure. The policy exists, written carefully and approved by people who know the regulation well. It sits in a document library she rarely opens, and the manager who could answer is at another service across town. Most organisations know this gap between the policy that exists and the policy that gets applied, and few of them measure it.

Sunnyfield, a New South Wales provider that has supported people with intellectual disability for more than seven decades, is using software to close that gap. Its services span shared living, employment, vocational and community programs, so staff are spread across many locations and rarely sit near a policy expert. The organisation has extended Cloda, an AI policy platform built by Irish health and social care technology company HCI, across its workforce, where it is expected to support about 1,500 frontline staff.

What the rollout involves

Staff ask questions in everyday language and receive answers drawn from Sunnyfield's approved policies and procedures. They do it on devices they already use and in multiple languages. The platform also includes quizzes that test understanding of key policies and procedures. The tool is designed for policy retrieval and comprehension rather than clinical or care decisions, a boundary that matters in a sector where the cost of error is high.

Andrew Hyland, CEO of Sunnyfield, put the problem in practical terms. "We already have comprehensive policies and procedures, but their real value comes when our staff can access, understand and apply them at the point they are needed." He also described the alternative most frontline workers know well: "Instead of spending valuable time searching through documents or checking with a manager, staff can ask Cloda and get an immediate answer from Sunnyfield's approved policies and procedures, then apply it with confidence."

Why the frontline came first

The broader rollout followed a pilot across six services covering community hubs, shared living and community support. That pilot did more than test the technology. It showed where workers needed more clarity before the tool reached everyone, which is the kind of finding a policy team rarely gets from an annual compliance sign off. Regina Connell, COO of HCI, said that "what has been particularly important about this implementation is that it started with the frontline." She added that "strong policies are essential, but they only improve quality and safety when staff can find, understand and apply them when needed."

The less obvious benefit sits in the questions themselves. Because staff now ask Cloda what they might otherwise ask a manager, Sunnyfield gains a clearer view of what people are unsure about. Patterns in those questions point to gaps in information, training or internal communication. For a sector facing growing expectations around safeguarding, governance, quality and workforce capability, that visibility may be worth as much as the answers.

What this means for L&D

Most learning teams still treat policy as something delivered once at induction and refreshed through an annual module. Sunnyfield's approach treats policy as something consulted in the moment and learned through use, with quizzes reinforcing the points that matter most. The question log becomes a running needs analysis, showing where a procedure is unclear or where training has not landed. That shifts the work of L&D from producing content to reading signals and fixing the source.

It also raises governance questions worth answering before any similar rollout. Who owns the approved policy set the assistant draws on, and how quickly is it updated when a procedure changes? Where does the tool stop and human judgement begin? Leaders working through those questions can find a structured starting point in our AI Governance program, which works through boundaries like the one Sunnyfield drew around care decisions. The practical test for learning and transformation leaders is whether frontline staff can find and apply a policy at the moment it matters, and whether anyone is reading what their questions reveal.

Sources:

• IT Brief Australia, 5 November 2026: Sunnyfield rolls out AI policy tool for frontline staff
• Cloda: Sunnyfield puts instant policy guidance in the hands of their disability support workers
• Pulse+IT: Sunnyfield rolls out AI policy assistant